Page:Science and Health.djvu/297

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
PRAYER AND ATONEMENT.
293

of mathematics to work out a problem for man; nor should we ask the Principle of all good to do a work already done, and which we have only to avail ourselves of, that is, to understand, in order to receive its blessings. The Principle of man must be reflected by man, else he is not the image and likeness of the patient, tender, and true, yea, the one altogether lovely; and to go higher than this, and understand “God is Love,” is the work of eternity.

“When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door pray to the father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

The closet signifies the sanctuary of Spirit, its door opening on Soul, and not sense, opening to Truth, God, and closing on error. The father in secret is the Principle of man, unseen to personal sense, the infinite Intelligence that knows all things, and rewards according to motives, regarding mind only and not speech. The “prayer of the righteous” that “heals the sick,” is after the manner our Master taught, when he bade his students enter into the Spirit of prayer, the door of personal sense closed, lips mute, and man in audience with his Maker, where, Spirit instead of matter, and Soul instead of sense are understood the standpoint of being, even the Principle thereof, that destroys sickness, sin, and death. Thus the power of Life, Love and Truth, will destroy sin, sickness, and death, and enlarge the capacities of man, revealing his God-given dominion over earth; but remember, also, that “none but the pure in heart shall see God”; shall be able to take this scientific position of prayer, in which personal